Thinking about starting a reef tank again

[coralbandit]

Some one on this site made a cheato reactor. They used a clear water filter housing and wrapped cheap LED tape lights all around it. With a set p like that you could have feed pump to cheato any where you want..

[Chris-Nicol]

Originally Posted by coralbandit

Some one on this site made a cheato reactor. They used a clear water filter housing and wrapped cheap LED tape lights all around it. With a set p like that you could have feed pump to cheato any where you want..

Yeah I was actually looking into that.

It’s slightly annoying as some Cheato is making its way to my return at the moment.

[Sniperhank]

If the cheato is getting into a different chamber then you should put some egg crate or something to prevent it from doing so. Right now your setup can be switched either way around.
The cheato could go first to remove what it can and the skimmer pick up what the cheato misses...or the cheato pick up what the skimmer misses.

[Chris-Nicol]

Originally Posted by Sniperhank

If the cheato is getting into a different chamber then you should put some egg crate or something to prevent it from doing so. Right now your setup can be switched either way around.
The cheato could go first to remove what it can and the skimmer pick up what the cheato misses...or the cheato pick up what the skimmer misses.

Yeah I will see if I can pick something up to stop the Cheato getting into my return.

I have just had a YouTube binge and was watching some of melevs reef vids. When he does a water change he talks about matching ph for water changes.

Is this something I should be doing? I haven’t checked ph before and thought it was only temp and salinity you had to match for water changes? I know you said that you shouldn’t chase ph in your DT as it leads to problems but does the same apply for matching water for a water change?

[Sniperhank]

I don’t worry about it. Ever. It fluctuates throughout the day due to co2 exchange so I’m not sure why anyone would want to attempt to match it. By the time a wc is done on any large reef, it has most likely changed in the display anyway.

[Chris-Nicol]

Originally Posted by Sniperhank

I don’t worry about it. Ever. It fluctuates throughout the day due to co2 exchange so I’m not sure why anyone would want to attempt to match it. By the time a wc is done on any large reef, it has most likely changed in the display anyway.

Ok cool. I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing.

I’m sure he said that if you have a low ph in your freshly mixed water then it can bring your alkalinity down in your display?

On another note my masstick came today. Just need to get some fish when I get rid of the dinos (if I ever do).

[Chris-Nicol]

Ok so I’m not sure if I still have dinos or not. I think it might just be hair algae I have now. I though it was dinos because of the bubbles. Can hair algae appear with bubbles on it or is this just an early stage of dinos?

I have been taking my sand and blowing out my rocks every other day. I still notice that the top layer of sand forms a kind of skin or shell? Can hair algae have this affect as well?

The algae that’s growing seems to be more fuzzy than snotty.

[Chris-Nicol]

this might be a better photo

[Chris-Nicol]

I’ve taken the plunge and reserved a diamond goby and a royal gramma which I am picking up on Saturday. I have my qt tank set up (the hospital tank that I used which I am currently running carbon in)

I have done a bit of research and think that I will have to put a bowl of sand in for the goby to sift through? I am going to change my salt lvl to match the LFS water in the qt and then raise it Slowly over the qt period to match my DT.

Does all this sound ok?

I couldn’t help myself when I was at my lfs at the weekend and bought a sand conch and an emerald crab. Never seen a conch b4 and that’s the first time I have seen an emerald crab at my lfs. I acclimated them as per the reefcleaners.coms instructions and both are doing fine

[Chris-Nicol]

the fish seem to be doing fine. Both look healthy enough.

I put a bowl of sand in for the goby but I hadn’t seen him in it! He was eating the masstick when I put that in but just didn’t go for the sand. That was until today when I seen him go in sift through some sand really quickly then he just stopped when the royal gramma came close to him. Then the royal gramma went for him and chased him out of the sand!!! One he was out he left the goby alone!?

Thought this was pretty odd behaviour?

Any thoughts?

[coralbandit]

Royal grammas are a barking dog. They open their mouth and act all tough but it is show.
I just moved mine and he had his mouth open the whole time like he was going to bite me !
Then he hung near the top of new tank for 2-3 days scared to go into new caves !

Yours may do this with almost anyone in the tank. Part of the character IMO.
I have never had mine really harass any other fish so I think yours will be fine.

[Sniperhank]

Might be territorial behavior over the sand due to it being an object in the system rather than all over. I wouldn't worry about it unless it gets aggressive.

[bribo12]

What bandit said. When I had a gramma he had a cave. If anyone came near his cave he shot out mouth wide open. Never did any damage to anyone though. All bark and no bite, tons of personality

[Chris-Nicol]

Yeah there was a lot of mouthing going on. Even the goby opened his mouth when the royal gramma came up to him. Then it looked like the royal gramma went up and bit him then the goby swam away. Maybe he didn’t actually bite him.

I might put in another bowl of sand so they can have a bowl each .

Thanks guys.

On another note I’m still having algae issues in my display. I bought bio pellets which I thought were h2 ocean but I bought the wrong ones. I have been testing for phosphates and getting low readings around 0.03ppm. I figure the phosphates must be leaching to rock/algae and that’s why I have a low reading. I haven’t been feeding my DT as I have no fish in it so it’s not an over feeding issue. I have bought Rowaphos but unsure on how much to use in my reactor?

Anyone any suggestions?

[coralbandit]

I use GFO but found this on BRS...
RowaPhos was developed in Germany for treating main water supplies. RowaPhos is a patented, man made ferric hydroxide material chemically engineered for the efficient removal of phosphates, arsenic and silicates from fresh and saltwater.
100 g/100 mL RowaPhos will remove 3ppm of phosphate from 100 US gallons of saltwater.

[Chris-Nicol]

Originally Posted by coralbandit

I use GFO but found this on BRS...
RowaPhos was developed in Germany for treating main water supplies. RowaPhos is a patented, man made ferric hydroxide material chemically engineered for the efficient removal of phosphates, arsenic and silicates from fresh and saltwater.
100 g/100 mL RowaPhos will remove 3ppm of phosphate from 100 US gallons of saltwater.

Yeah I read something like that but the thing is I have no idea on how much phosphate I am trying to remove as I don’t think my test is accurate due to leaching. I know I can’t use too much to start with as big changes are not good in an aquarium. I just don’t know what a good amount is to start off with.

[Chris-Nicol]

Also should I rinse the rowaphos before I use it?

[Chris-Nicol]

Seen these corals on a website. I believe one is a war coral (the green and red one) and not sure of the other one. Does anyone know and are these corals easy enough to keep? Was thinking of doing my first online order

[bribo12]

The favia ( war coral) is super easy. The diaseris plate coral is not as easy but isn’t really tough either. It’s a deep water coral so it doesn’t need as much light but can be a bit finicky with parameters

[Chris-Nicol]

Originally Posted by bribo12

The favia ( war coral) is super easy. The diaseris plate coral is not as easy but isn’t really tough either. It’s a deep water coral so it doesn’t need as much light but can be a bit finicky with parameters

Thanks for the info. I will hopefully be ordering some easier to keep corals sometime soon. Want to order a few frags so I can get the most out of the delivery charge. Ordering 1-2 frags is pointless. I would be paying double for a drag after delivery is added